Cute and stylish crafts, projects, and DIYs from a proud craft dork.

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Monthly Archives: April 2015

That’s right folks—my green thumb is back! What that means is I’ve purchased pre-grown plants from the store and have made a commitment to them, myself, and all of you to try to keep them alive for a while. The weird thing about doing gardening as simple as replanting when you live in an apartment building is that you don’t really have access to dirt. So I took a mixing bowl and, under the cover of night, snuck a few scoops from the front “yard” (about five square feet of grass) of my complex. Don’t tell my landlord.

I got the idea on Pinterest to reuse tea tins as planters. And since I had a few English teas in cute tins lying around, I bought a couple of ADORABLE and tiny succulents to fill them! Plus, I, of course, love the British decoration of the tins. Here are two succulents sharing a home in a double-decker bus tea tin. (I’m hoping the sparse one recovers after being dropped on its head.)

And here’s a solo plant in an English breakfast tea tin.

There have got to be tons more things you can do with these tins, but I haven’t come up with any other ideas yet. Anyone have some? Just in case, I better keep drinking tea.

Project number two from this session of art class is a painting of a lovely gentleman (I think) fox. I originally thought it was a female and my art teacher didn’t, but I just couldn’t bring myself to paint boobs to make it true. I was inspired by (copied) this painting I found on Etsy via Pinterest. I’ve been very into foxes lately so one wearing a British riding coat seems fitting. It only took about two classes to finish up. I think it turned out pretty well! I like how the plain, really light peachy background sets off the fox and makes it look more like a fancy portrait. My teacher wanted me to change it and add more color, but I stood my ground. Here he is resting on my green leather chair, as fox oil paintings are wont to do. I’ve still got to find a good spot for him/her but I think it would fit in nicely in my chair and book corner. The next painting I’m working on is of a rug! I hope it turns out better than it sounds in that sentence.

I’m not saying I’m a gold digger, but I’m really digging everything gold lately. And, if you saw my other spray paint project, I really dig spray painting things, too. It’s cheap, easy, and completely changes an item into something else. So you can see where this is going: gold spray paint! I’ve also been into trays like everyone else so when I found this metal one at Goodwill, I snagged it up. Once I had the gold spray paint in my grubby little hands, I couldn’t fathom just spray painting one item in my apartment, so I settled on an amount between one and everything I own (everything was tempting but I chose two). That’s how this boring pencil holder got roped into the deal. Sucker. If you haven’t looked at metallic spray paints lately, there are a lot of options. They range from insanely shiny and reflective to toned down and matte. I picked one on the matte side in a gold tone. I first washed the tray and pencil holder and then sprayed them with a coat of primer. I wasn’t sure if the paint would stick to the shiny surface of the tray without it. Then it was just three-ish coats of the paint and here’s how they turned out! As you can see, the only thing that didn’t work out is that you can still slightly see the logo on the tray. I’m debating whether I will try spraying a bunch more coats to cover it up or try mod podging something onto it to cover it up. Otherwise, I love the color and the finish. And in the meantime, once the tray is styled, the writing doesn’t really show at all. See?!Cost of the project: